Many software developers use software development tools to develop software for specific devices (also referred to as target platforms). Software development tools are often integrated into integrated development environments (IDEs). An example IDE is VISUAL STUDIO®.NET 2005 developed by MICROSOFT® Corporation. Software is often developed utilizing a software development framework. Example software development frameworks include MICROSOFT.NET FRAMEWORK and MICROSOFT.NET COMPACT FRAMEWORK, also developed by MICROSOFT® Corporation. As a specific example, the MICROSOFT.NET COMPACT FRAMEWORK is an example of a software development framework utilized to develop software for mobile devices. Example mobile devices include POCKET PC 2003, SMARTPHONE 2003, and devices supporting the WINDOWS CE® 5.0 operating system.
Typically, a combination of a development tool and framework is selected based on productivity features of the toolset and the features and functionality intrinsic to the framework. Because there often is a one-to-one correlation between a given development tool and a version of the development framework that it supports, the combination typically is manifested in a specific development tool. In such an environment, developing software for different versions of the framework would require different toolsets and force a software developer to forego potential advancements in newer development tools. Also, developing similar software for a different target platform would require the developer to transfer source code to a different project or make significant changes to the existing project. The above described processes of recreating software source code projects can be burdensome, time consuming, expensive, and error-prone.